The full content of Annals is available to subscribers

This letter is written as a follow-up to an earlier essay (1). The encounter with Jiajia occurred in May 2001. When I returned to the United States in June, I initiated a search for her. In July, the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu responded, providing the name of Jiajia's father and his address in a village near Chongqing. I sent him a letter, in English, with no real expectation of a reply. In November, a letter came from him, in Chinese, that included a photograph of Jiajia.

A Chinese graduate student translated the letter, which stated that Jiajia was doing well but that she had been born with only 1 lung and had therefore been prone to many colds and to pneumonia. The graduate student introduced me to several of his Chinese friends. One, Xuexian Yan, a physician from Chongqing, had both graduated from and worked in the medical school there. He offered to contact physicians there to facilitate Jiajia's care. Although it seemed there was little curative potential, we thought that preventive and acute care requirements could be bolstered. Jiajia's father had written, Jiajia is better compared with when we met at the airplane. We are worried whether she would face more difficulty and bitterness in the future. By all means, we promise to bring Jiajia a healthy and normal life, no matter how hard it would be. This is the biggest wish of us as her parents.